185 Inspirational Rose Quotes Honoring Our Life, Beauty And Thorns

Our latest collection of rose quotes will inspire you and encourage growth in your life.

Many love that alluring scent and lovely petals, but there is a pain in beauty, and the rose is proof of it.

Are you searching for rose quotes to honor life, beauty, and the thorns we cannot escape?

Let us know your favorite rose quote in the comment section below.

What are the benefits of reading these rose quotes?

Roses are literally the queen of flowers.

We all love and appreciate their beauty.

Roses are not only pretty, they:

• send a strong message of love
• possess a heavenly scent
• come in breathtaking colors

But besides representing something pristine and lovely, roses can impart a lot of wisdom on us.

Just as a rosebud opens up into a beautiful bloom under the right conditions, we should also find what we need to make our dreams flourish.

We should develop the ability to survive and become strong just like the rose grows thorns to protect itself from harm.

As you work towards your goals and dreams, enjoy your journey as much as the destination, seeing how the rose is beautiful at each stage of its life cycle.

Roses require pruning to allow them to thrive.

Similarly, we must embrace the seasons of “pruning” in our lives to encourage new growth and help us move forward.

Roses delight our senses in so many ways.

In honor of their incredible beauty, below is our collection of beautiful, wise, and inspirational rose quotes, rose sayings, and rose proverbs, collected from a variety of sources over the years.

Check out our most popular quote article, a list of short inspirational quotes for daily inspiration. 

Check out our inspirational quotes category page for more inspirational life quotes.

Rose quotes honoring our life, beauty and thorns

1. “No rose without a thorn.” – French Proverb

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2. “My life is part humor, part roses, part thorns.” – Bret Michaels

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3. “A rose’s rarest essence lives in the thorn.” – Rumi (see more quotes by Rumi)

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4. “Do not watch the petals fall from the rose with sadness, know that, like life, things sometimes must fade, before they can bloom again.” – Anonymous

5. “But he that dares not grasp the thorn. Should never crave the rose.” – Anne Bronte

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6. “The sharp thorn often produces delicate roses.” – Ovid

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7. “True love is like little roses, sweet, fragrant in small doses.” – Ana Claudia Antunes

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8. “Rose never propagandize its fragrant, but its own fragrance spreads surrounding.” – Sukarno

9. “If you enjoy the fragrance of a rose, you must accept the thorns which it bears.” – Isaac Hayes

10. “If the rose is a beautiful flower, it is also because it opens itself.” – Charles De Leusse

If you enjoy this article, you might also love our collection of yellow quotes for a happy aesthetic.

Rose quotes on life and beauty

11. “Everybody loves roses: they are the symbol of virtually everywhere, from England to North Dakota. They are an international icon for innocence, and beauty, and rugby; the knee-jerk favorite of politicians, poets, and other enemies of civilization.” – Charlotte Mendelson

12. “When love came first to earth, the Spring Spread rose-beds to receive him.” – Thomas Campbell

13. “Did you hear about the rose that grew from a crack in the concrete? Proving nature’s laws wrong, it learned to walk without having feet. Funny, it seems to by keeping its dreams; it learned to breathe fresh air. Long live the rose that grew from concrete when no one else even cared.” – Tupac Shakur

14. “Real beauty is in the fragility of your petals. A rose that never wilts isn’t a rose at all.” – Crystal Woods

You will also enjoy our article on lotus flower quotes.

15. “It’s the time that you spent on your rose that makes your rose so important… People have forgotten this truth, but you mustn’t forget it. You become responsible forever for what you’ve tamed. You’re responsible for your rose.” – Antoine de Saint-Exupery

16. “A bit of fragrance always clings to the hand that gives you roses.” – Chinese Proverb

17. “Love is much like a wild rose, beautiful and calm, but willing to draw blood in its defense.” – Mark Overby

18. “Some people grumble that roses have thorns; I am grateful that thorns have roses.” – Alphonse Karr

19. “Beauty is an ecstasy; it is as simple as hunger. There is really nothing to be said about it. It is like the perfume of a rose: you can smell it and that is all.” – W. Somerset Maugham

20. “A life filled with love, must have some thorns, but a life empty of love will have no roses.” – Anonymous

Also, check out these inspirational sunflower quotes that are filled with life lessons.

Rose quotes that will make you rethink the way you’re living your life

21. “Where, you tend a rose, my lad, a thistle cannot grow.” – Frances Hodgson Burnett

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22. “A single rose can be my garden… a single friend, my world.” – Leo Buscaglia

23. “Just remember, during the winter, far beneath the bitter snow, that there’s a seed that with the sun’s love in the spring becomes a rose.” – Leanne Rimes

If you’re enjoying these quotes, read our collection of snow quotes that celebrate the winter season.

24. “We are all dreaming of some magical rose garden over the horizon-instead of enjoying the roses blooming outside our windows today.” – Dale Carnegie

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25. “This rose is an extra. Its smell and its color are an embellishment of life, not a condition of it. It is only goodness which gives extras, and so I say again that we have much to hope from the flowers.” – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

26. “For the rose, though its petals be torn asunder, still smiles on, and it is never cast down.” – Rumi

27. “Beauty without virtue is like a rose without scent.” – Anonymous

28. “Life is like a rose garden – Watch for the thorns and keep the pest dust handy.” – Anonymous

29. “The world is a rose, smell it, and pass it to your friends.” – Persian Proverb

30. “Thorns and roses grow on the same tree.” – Turkish Proverb

Rose quotes to encourage growth in your life

31. “Discipline trains you to put up with disappointments, every rose has a thorn.” – Sai Baba

32. “Love is a rose, but you’d better not pick it, only grows when it’s on the vine. Handful of thorns and you know you’ve missed it. Lose your love when you say the word mine.” – Linda Ronstadt

If you’re enjoying these quotes, you’ll love our collection of iconic vine quotes to make you LOL.

33. “The optimist sees the rose and not its thorns; the pessimist stares at the thorns, oblivious to the rose” – Kahlil Gibran

34. “True friendship is like a rose, we don’t realize its beauty until it fades.” – Anonymous

35. “You may break, you may shatter the vase, if you will, but the scent of the roses will hang round it still.” – Thomas Moore

36. “A relationship is like a rose. How long it lasts, no one knows.” – Rob Cella

37. “Forgiveness is the scent that the rose leaves on the heel that crushes it.” – Anonymous

38. “The rose is fairest when its budding new, and hope is brightest when it dawns from fears.” – Sir Walter Scott

39. “When life throws thorns, hunt for roses.” – Anonymous

40. “God gave us memories that we might have roses in December.” – J. M. Barrie

If you’re enjoying this article, you might also like these colorful blue quotes that will delight your senses and spark creativity.

Rose quotes to inspire and teach

41. “There is simply the rose; it is perfect in every moment of its existence.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

42. “A woman is like a rose… If you take good care of her, you will see love blossom.” – Anonymous

43. “We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses.” – Abraham Lincoln

44. “What a lovely thing a rose is!” – Arthur Conan Doyle

45. “It’s the time you spent on your rose that makes her so important.” – Antoine De Saint Exupéry

46. “I’d rather let you cover all my roads with thorns than with dead roses.” – Nema Al-Araby

47. “There may be many flowers in a man’s life… but only one rose.” – Anonymous

48. “The rose and the thorn, and sorrow and gladness are linked together.” – Saadi

49. “Love and a red rose can’t be hid.” – Thomas Holcroft

50. “A rose must remain with the sun and the rain or its lovely promise won’t come true.” – Ray Evans

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More rose quotes and sayings

51. “Every rose has its thorn, just like every night has its dawn.” – Poison, Every Rose Has Its Thorn

52. “Roses do not bloom hurriedly; for beauty, like any masterpiece, takes time to blossom.” – Matshona Dhliwayo

53. “A rose does not answer its enemies with words, but with beauty.” – Matshona Dhliwayo

54. “The gentle rose offers a powerful joy known only to the heart.” – Andrew Pacholyk

55. “I love rose gold – it’s just beautiful and classy and timeless.” – Madelaine Petsch

56. “I can’t feel bad about being who I am, just like the girl next to me can’t feel bad about being who she is. Because a rose can never be a sunflower, and a sunflower can never be a rose.” – Miranda Kerr

57. “The rose that is democracy has its own thorns. We have to bear with it.” – DON SANTO

58. “Love planted a rose, and the world turned sweet.” – Katharine Lee Bates

59. “One rose says more than the dozen.” – Wendy Craig

60. “The Rose is without an explanation; She blooms, because She blooms.” – Angelus Silesius

61. “One rose is enough for the dawn.” – Edmond Jabes

62. “The rose speaks of love silently, in a language known only to the heart.” – Unknown

63. “The fragrance always stays in the hand that gives the rose.” – George William Curtis

64. “Our eyes reflect light. Better that the lips are more like a rose petal.” — Olivier Theyskens

65. “The world looks better through rosé colored glasses.” – Unknown

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Beautiful rose quotes for everyone

66. “Truths and roses have thorns about them.” — Henry David Thoreau

67. “There’s no gift more classic and more beautiful than roses.” — La La Anthony

68. “I’d rather have roses on my table than diamonds on my neck.” — Emma Goldman

69. “Smell the roses. Smell the coffee. Whatever it is that makes you happy.” — Rita Moreno

70. “Won’t you come into the garden? I would like my roses to see you.” — Richard Brinsley Sheridan

71. “What though youth gave love and roses, Age still leaves us friends and wine.” — Thomas Moore

72. “A rose to the living is more than sumptuous wreaths to the dead.” – Nixon Waterman

73. “It will never rain roses: when we want to have more roses we must plant more trees.” — George Eliot

74. “As you walk down the fairway of life you must smell the roses, for you only get to play one round.” — Ben Hogan

75. “An idealist is one who, on noticing that roses smell better than a cabbage, concludes that it will also make better soup.” — H. L. Mencken

Rose quotes and captions for Instagram

76. “Rosé the day away.”

77. “Love is the only rose whose thorn’s prick is sweet.”

78. “Stop and smell the rosé.”

79. “It is the best time you have spent on your rose that makes your rose so important.”

80. “Where there’s a will, there’s a rosé.”

81. “True love is like little roses, sweet and fragrant in small doses.”

82. “A rose in full bloom is truly but a pretty sight, something worth wasting my time upon.”

83. “A woman is like a rose if you take good care of her, you will see love blossom.”

84. “The roses were close friends. Their friendship was almost unbeatable.”

85. “A thorn defends the rose, harming only those who would steal the blossom.”

Poetic rose quotes

85. “But the rose leaves herself upon the brier, For winds to kiss and grateful bees to feed.” – John Keats

Check out these bee quotes for more about the flower-loving insect.

86. “Of all the flowers, methinks a rose is best.” – William Shakespeare

87. “Life is like a rose, peeping through the hardships of life to bloom with color.” – Stephanie

88. “She who loves roses must be patient and not cry out when she is pierced by thorns.” – Olga Broumas

89. “Count the roses, not the thorns.” – Matshona Dhliwayo

90. “A rose does not lose sleep because it was mocked by weeds.” – Matshona Dhliwayo

91. “Friends are the roses of life. Pick them carefully and avoid the thorns!” – Anonymous

92. “But ne’er the rose without the thorn.” – Robert Herrick

93. “I am not the rose, but I have lived near the rose.” – Geoffery Chaucer

94. “Roses, roses, roses, I thank all the roses that bloom in the Spring.” – Andy Williams

95. “Gather the rose of love whilst yet is time.” – Edmund Spenser

Lovely rose quotes

96. “Eternal Spring, with smiling Verdue here Warms the mild Air, and crowns the youthful year . . The Rose still blushes, and the vi’lets blow.” — Samuel Garth

97. “Decide who you are and what your goals entail – then go for the roses. Life has little regard for those who waste time.” -Joe Huntsman, Sr. 

98. “’Tis now the summer of your youth: time has not cropped the roses from your cheek, though sorrow long has washed them.” -Edward Moore

99. “And he repents in thorns that sleeps in beds of roses.” -Francis Quarles

100. “They are not long, the days of wine and roses.” -Ernest Dowson

101. “The worker must have bread, but she must have roses, too.” -Rose Schneiderman

102. “While mantling on the maiden’s cheek, Young roses kindled into thought.” -Thomas Moore

103. “We all agree now – by ‘we’ I mean intelligent people under sixty – that a work of art is like a rose. A rose is not beautiful because it is like something else. Neither is a work of art. Roses and works of art are beautiful in themselves.” -Clive Bell

104. “The moon is ripe with summer’s love; her heart wild as a rose.” -Angie Weiland-Crosby

105. “The voice of your eyes is deeper than all roses.” -e.e. cummings

Rose quotes that fuel passion

106. “Be happy, cried the Nightingale, be happy; you shall have your red rose. I will build it out of music by moonlight, and stain it with my own heart’s-blood. All that I ask of you in return is that you will be a true lover, for Love is wiser than Philosophy, though she is wise, and mightier than Power, though he is mighty. Flame-coloured are his wings, and coloured like flame is his body. His lips are sweet as honey, and his breath is like frankincense.” – Oscar Wilde

107. “Goodness often blossoms like roses on very rickety trellis-work, and beauty can grow out of nonsense.” — Hubert Butler

108. “Strew on her roses, roses, And never a spray of yew! In quiet she reposes; Ah, would that I did too!” — Matthew Arnold

109. “A rose is an argument. It proclaims the triumph of beauty over brutality, of gentleness over violence, of the ephemeral over the lasting, and of the universal over the particular. The same rose bursts into bloom on the North Cape and in the Sahara desert.” – Alain Meilland

110. “One of the most tragic things I know about human nature is that all of us tend to put off living. We are all dreaming of some magical rose garden over the horizon – instead of enjoying the roses blooming outside our windows today.” – Dale Carnegie

111. “Don’t divorce your wife: bring her a dozen roses; the shock will kill her, and you can use the roses for the funeral.” – Evan Esar

112. “Oh, that’s the beauty of the rose, that it blossoms and dies.” — Willa Cather

113. “The Rainbow comes and goes, And lovely is the Rose.” – William Wordsworth

114. “The air was fragrant with a thousand trodden aromatic herbs, with fields of lavender, and with the brightest roses blushing in tufts all over the meadows.” – William Cullen Bryant

Funny Rose Quotes That Will Make You Want To Be Around Flowers

116. “Can anyone remember love? It’s like trying to summon up the smell of roses in a cellar. You might see a rose, but never the perfume.” — Arthur Miller

117. “There is nothing more difficult for a truly creative painter than to paint a rose, because before he can do so he has first to forget all the roses that were ever painted.” — Henri Matisse

118. “But friendship is the breathing rose, with sweets in every fold.” — Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

119. “I never promised you a rose garden.” — Traian Basescu

120. “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” — William Shakespeare

121. “I like roses as red as blood. I smell lilies as white as milk. I grow irises as purple as my dreams. So, let me give you peonies as pink my kiss.” — Alena Shubina Lis

122. “A red rose is not selfish because it wants to be a red rose. It would be horribly selfish if it wanted all the other flowers in the garden to be both red and roses.” — Oscar Wilde

123. “The red rose whispers of passion And the white rose breathes of love; O, the red rose is a falcon, And the white rose is a dove.” — John Boyle O’Reilly

124. “The things that let you down are the things that let you see how far you have rose.” — Amani

125. “A rose dreams of enjoying the company of bees, but none appears. The sun asks: Aren’t you tired of waiting? Yes, answers the rose, but if I close my petals, I will wither and die.” — Paulo Coelho

Heart Warming Rose Quotes

126. “In a world full of roses, stand out like a dandelion in the middle of a green, plush lawn.” — June Stoyer

127. “Oh, dear! Is Summer over? I heard a rosebud moan, When first her eyes she opened, And found she was alone.” — Oiver Herford

128. “The first man to compare the cheeks of a young woman to a rose was obviously a poet; the first to repeat it was possibly an idiot.” — Salvador Dali

129. “September sky never looked more charming; or the sublime petals of the rose looked so graceful.” ― Avijeet Das

130. “A rose in a desert can only survive on its strength, not its beauty.” ― Matshona Dhliwayo

131. “Only when your love of roses is greater than your fear of thorns can you grow a beautiful garden.” ― Matshona Dhliwayo

132. “Teaching you how to grow a garden is better than giving you a thousand roses.” ― Matshona Dhliwayo

133. “A thorn is a rose’s friend but a gardener’s enemy.” ― Matshona Dhliwayo

134. “Roses shouldn’t waste their thorns on each other.” ― Heather Herrman

135. “As delicate as flower, as tender as rose petals, choosing to be tender and kind in a harsh environment is not weakness, it’s courage.” ― Luffina Lourduraj

Short Rose Quotes By Matshona Dhliwayo

136. “Plucking a rose only proves you desire it, but nurturing it proves you love it.” ― Matshona Dhliwayo

137. “Life may be a bed of roses, but roses still have thorns.” ― Matshona Dhliwayo

138. “Don’t pluck a rose’s petals and then ask the rose why it is sad.” ― Matshona Dhliwayo

139. “Love is the softest rose in the soul’s garden.” ― Matshona Dhliwayo

140. “A rose’s prick is better than a daisy’s kiss.” ― Matshona Dhliwayo

141. “A flawed rose is better than a flawless dandy lion.” ― Matshona Dhliwayo

142. “Learn from roses; even when trampled they give off perfume, not despair.” ― Matshona Dhliwayo

143. “A daisy blooming in a desert is worth more than a rose blossoming in a rainforest.” ― Matshona Dhliwayo

144. “A rose’s beautiful scent is extracted only when it is crushed.” ― Matshona Dhliwayo

145. “Be like a rose; no matter how many thorns you encounter in life, bloom.” ― Matshona Dhliwayo

Rose Quotes For Their Beautiful Scent

146. “Perez Hilton is an irritating wasp in the beautiful rose garden that is my life.” — Lily Allen

147. “A Rose is sweeter in the budde than full blowne.” — John Lyly

148. “Sudden a thought came like a full-blown rose, Flushing his brow.” — John Keats

149. “Every rose that is sweet-scented within, That rose is telling of the secrets of the Universal.” — Rumi

150. “A crown of roses is also a crown of thorns.” — Gilbert K. Chesterton

151. “I shall smile when wreaths of snow Blossom where the rose should grow.” — Emily Bronte

152. “My desk is covered with talismans: pieces of rose quartz, wishing stones from a favorite beach.” — Dani Shapiro

153. The beauty and the scent of roses can be used as a medicine and the sun rays as a food.” — Nikola Tesla

154. “How red the rose that is the soldie.” — Wallace Stevens

155. “The instant trivial as it is is all we have unless-unless things the imagination feeds upon, the scent of the rose, startle us anew.” — William Carlos Williams

Iconic Rose Quotes About Beauty

156. “Just like the rose holds her beauty among the thorns, we can gather our strength from the most unlikely places.” ― Christine Evangelou

157. “She is a rose, Jest. Lovely on the eyes, yes, but such thorns are not to be ignored.” ― Marissa Meyer

158. “I looked at you and only saw beautiful because legendary is the ability of a woman’s mind to weave fields of roses from thorns.” ― J. Autherine

159. “Roses are teaching that the beauty of life will bloom, once you have taught yourself the lessons given by living with the thorns.” ― Grigoris Deoudis

160. “Why are roses kept for their blossoms rather than shunned for their thorns?” ― J. Aleksandr Wootton

161. “I have brought you the rose of love, and you have crowned me, in these dark hours, with their thorns.” ― Sir Kristian Goldmund Aumann

162. “The one who was afraid of the pricking roses, plunged himself into an abyss without petals.” ― Nur Bedeir

163. “Like freshly cut roses, I place life in a vase of love.” ― Kamand Kojouri

164. “Wild roses are fairest, and nature is a better gardener than art.” ― Louisa May Alcott

165. “Her lips? The early morning rose would wither on the branch if it could feel envy.” ― William Shakespeare

Rose Quotes to Unfold the Beauty of Life

166. “The beautiful, passionate, ruined South, the land of magnolias and music, of roses and romance . . . living on the memory of crushing defeats.” ― Oscar Wilde

167. “Few would dispute with the rose her claim to be the queen of flowers, for where is her equal to be found? Is she not God’s masterpiece?” ― Patience Strong

168. “The surest way to wake up and smell the roses every day is to go to sleep face down in the flower bed.” ― Argus Hamilton

169. “I haven’t much time to be fond of anything. But when I have a moment’s fondness to bestow, most times the roses get it.” ― Wilkie Collins

170. “Beware of prejudice; light is good in whatsoever lamp it is burning; a rose is beautiful in whatever garden it may bloom.” ― Abdu’l-Bahá

171. Don’t let the fear of the thorn keep you from the rose.” ― Groucho Marx

172. “There is no end to the petals of the inner rose. Continue to unfold set after set of petals until you have completed your meditation session.” ― Frederick Lenz

173. “I think of love, and you, and my heart grows full and warm, and my breath stands still… I can feel a sunshine stealing into my soul and making it all summer, and every thorn, a rose.” ― Emily Dickinson

174. “I feel as if I had opened a book and found roses of yesterday sweet and fragrant, between its leaves.” ― Lucy Maud Montgomery

175. “There is no rose without thorns.” ― Pam Muñoz Ryan

176. “When we see a soul whose acts are all regal, graceful, and pleasant as roses, we must thank God that such things can be and are.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

177. “I studied voice for about two years with an amazing coach, and I never rose above the level of mediocre.” — Danny Strong

178. “As a female pilot, the sacred rose garden in my heart is the motherland’s blue sky.” — Liu Yang

179. “Something with inner beauty will live forever, like the scent of a rose.” — Alex Flinn

Which of these rose quotes was your favorite?

We love roses for many reasons.

They are beautiful; they symbolize love, and no other flower’s scent can compare to that of a rose.

Roses can also afford us many life lessons, serving as a highly effective metaphor.

Hopefully, the above quotes will encourage growth and help you move forward.

Did you enjoy these rose quotes?

Which of the quotes resonated with you best?

Let us know in the comment section below.

Also, don’t forget to share the quotes with your friends and followers.